Question

to fail and fail again
david duchovny
just texted me and asked what i thought
—hateful and small, monochrome, . . . —of
from wordsworth: “fall again. fail
teams. that she would ask—she’s 21; she
that she also knows that i know she knows the
between us. she knows i wrote my senior
years ago, on beckett’s novels. . . .
that i’m half in love with failure, a kind of
and that even at a young age that must have
it i later drew me to acting, and writing, and
much perfection is an impossible target. i’ve
lies. the energy created by hamartia, the near
dom and electricity when you forget your
ll. and to fall is to fall. and to fall is to be
we reach out our hands to all of humanity. . . .
daughter and my son because i have this
en i am gone, if my kids could pulp my novels,
of them—much as i imagine researchers do to
pulverized ancient dinosaur fossils—they could
display mulch. that my kids, if they ran that
d, could see me there clearly: the footprint, the
d. the mysterious, spiraled math of my heart
of itself from the light and casually spoken
this will free them of something. these books are
des i’m dead, of speaking truth to the future.
kids and what is nameable and unnameable
tions makes me think of my parents. . . .

6
how does the author use rhetoric to communicate his perspective on failure?
a he uses his personal experiences to appeal to authority.
b he uses his academic qualifications to create a logical appeal.
c he uses a quotation from his favorite author to appeal to ethics.
d he uses examples about his family to create an emotional appeal.

Explanation:

• Option A: Appealing to authority involves citing experts, not personal experiences, so A is incorrect.
• Option B: Academic qualifications don't directly create a logical appeal; logical appeal uses reasoning/evidence, so B is incorrect.
• Option C: A quotation from an author doesn't relate to appealing to ethics (ethos is about credibility/ethics of the speaker), so C is incorrect.
• Option D: Using family examples (like thoughts about kids, parents) aims to evoke emotions (pathos), creating an emotional appeal.

Answer:

D. He uses examples about his family to create an emotional appeal.